away. I’ll heat us up one of her microwave meals.”
“There’s none in the freezer,” Elliot replied. “And Mom said we can’t order takeout right now. She doesn’t want us to risk getting the virus. She said it would be easy to heat up a frozen pizza though.” He looked dubious at the thought.
Elliot and I were used to Mom being gone a lot, but when she knew she wasn’t going to be home for dinner, she usually froze meals for us or we ordered in pizza. The fact we were out of microwave meals was unusual. Mom was normally really well prepared. This week had been crazy busy at work for her though, and she hadn’t planned on being gone tonight.
I glanced at the oven. It was some expensive silver thing that looked like it belonged in a spaceship. I’d never used it before and wasn’t even sure how to turn it on. I was somewhat glad Clary wasn’t here to watch this, because she’d probably crack up laughing at how useless I was.
“How hard could it be?” I muttered before wandering over to the freezer to get the pizza out. I was surprised to find Mom had stocked the freezer full of them. It looked like we wouldn’t be eating takeout pizza for a while.
As I pulled the pizza box from the freezer, an idea came to my mind. Clary had to be hungry, so perhaps I could cook the pizza and take some slices up to her room. It wasn’t the most elaborate of gestures, but it was a start. It would also give me an excuse to talk with her. The more I thought about it, the more the idea appealed to me.
“Have you seen Clary since this morning?” I asked Elliot as I started trying to figure out the knobs on the oven. They all had little symbols surrounding them, and I had no idea what each one meant. I didn’t want to admit that in front of my brother though, so I just turned a few and hoped for the best. The oven appeared to roar to life, and the light on the inside blinked on, so I must have done something right.
“You mean my lockdown girlfriend?” he asked. “Nah, she’s kept to her room all day.”
I struggled not to laugh. “Your lockdown girlfriend?”
“Yup.” Elliot grinned. “She might not know it yet, but she’s totally going to be my girlfriend.”
“Don’t be stupid.”
Elliot’s expression fell. “It’s not stupid. She was totally checking me out earlier.”
“No, she wasn’t. You’re like five years younger than her. You don’t have a chance.”
“I bet she likes younger men.”
“Probably not younger boys though,” I fired right back.
Elliot crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re just jealous.”
“Because?”
“Because even though I’m a few years younger than you, I still have a better chance with her than you do.”
“Sure, you do.” I laughed. “And even if you did, who says I care about my chances with Clary?”
Elliot gave me a knowing smile. “I saw the way you were looking at her. You’re in love with her.”
I lifted both eyebrows at him. My brother was far more observant than I gave him credit for. In the two minutes he’d spoken with Clary and me this morning, he’d clearly seen that I had a massive thing for Clary and that she wasn’t the least bit interested in me.
“I can have any girl at school, and you think I want her?”
Elliot shrugged. “Why wouldn’t you? She’s hot!”
I rubbed my face, feeling suddenly tired. My younger brother was exhausting at the best of times, but lockdown only made him more draining. Being quarantined with the girl of my dreams when she didn’t like me back was bad enough, but there was nothing worse than being locked down with a younger sibling. I couldn’t be the only teen in lockdown who already wanted to kill their brother after two days, could I? I bet there was a group on Facebook I could join.
“You going to put that pizza in then?” he continued. “I don’t think it will cook on the counter.”
I scowled at him before placing the pizza in the oven. As soon as I closed the oven door, I left the room to allow it to cook. Elliot had struck far too close to home with his comments about Clary. I wasn’t about to sit around in the kitchen with him and let him unravel my deep, dark secret. I needed some fresh air.
As I stepped outside, I